architect
architect. Person capable of preparing the plans, elevations, and sections of the design of a sophisticated building with an aesthetic content and to supervise its construction in accordance with the drawings and specifications. Soane described an architect's business as that of making ‘designs and estimates’, directing ‘the works’, and valuing ‘the different parts’: he declared the architect as the ‘intermediate agent between the employer, whose honour and interest he is to study, and the mechanic, whose rights he is to defend’. Soane emphasized the architect's position as implying great trust, being ‘responsible for the mistakes, negligences, and ignorance of those he employs’. Ruskin suggested that one who is neither a sculptor nor painter could not be an architect, but only a builder, and Frank Lloyd Wright stated that an architect cannot bury his mistakes, unlike a physician. With the development of computers and changes in patronage, however, the role of the architect is changing, and indeed many architects are now increasingly concerned with image.
Bibliography
Colvin (1995);
W. Papworth (1852);
Sturgis et al. (1901–2);
Jane Turner (1996);
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architect